[Plagiarism] How To Protect Your Copyright With A Video Camera

Last year we told the story of how Noam Galai's self portrait image had been stolen and reprinted hundreds of times around the world without his permission. What people were shocked to find out was Noam did not threaten or take legal action of any kind (instead he used the momentum to propel his career). Duane Lester of All American Blogger decided to go a different route and film his confrontation with the paper who plagiarized his work.

You can read Duane's full article on his site here. I'm all for upholding copyright and believe those who copy and paste (or print and sell) other people's work should be held accountable. I'm not sure if showing up to the front door of a copyright violator and filming the incident is necessarily the best thing to do but that is exactly what happened in this case. Duane marched into The Oregon Times Observer and demanded that the publication of his original written piece be paid for on the spot. After some hesitation, the newspaper wrote Mr. Lester a check for $500 which might have been a small price to pay compared to the full legal battle that could have ensued.

After watching this video, it made me think, if I was faced with having to deal with a copyright infringement suit, could I ever stoop to this level? It might be easy to say "no" but without having been in Duane Lester's shoes, maybe I'd be surprised by my own actions to mend such a wrong doing. What do you guys think after watching this? Are Lester's actions commendable or did he exploit this old man in a similar way his own article was exploited?

Oh wow!!! Nice job! Yeah that's pretty crappy... he was even saying that the article had even copied the spelling errors from the original article... that even goes to prove more than there is no way it could have been a coincidental identical work!

Still.... What I don't understand is why it offends you two that a thief got caught and publicly confronted with his crime? This particular thief didnt think twice about splashing the sheriff's "crimes" all over his newspaper... How is what Duane did any worse? Patricks opinion that Duane's act was immoral clearly suggests he considers himself above such reprehensible behaviour yet he's basically done the exact same thing by publicly taking the position that Duane's approach in reporting this was somehow inappropriate and using the pulpit of Fstoppers to do it!

Here's the irony... Patrick reported on Duane, because Duane reported on Bob because Bob reported on the sheriff. Seems to me everyone's doing the same thing. Publicly trashing the next guy down the line.

I seriously dont understand the mentality of some of the readers of this site. Why is it that you all feel its cool to be flat out rude to and bash the creators of the site? He merely stated his opinion and asked how you all felt about it. No part of that required him to be called a Twat. If anything all you negative two faced readers are the twats. You're all nice and cheerful when its time for a give away but god forbid if someone has a fucking opinion. You're all a bunch of mercenary kids with bad fucking manners.

No, i dont agree with Patrick's opinion on the subject whatsoever either, but unless he's on the site preaching bigotries and insulting our mothers, then there's no reason to personally attack the guy.

His sarcastic, unprofessional and belligerent response to what was a very fair and balanced review ensured I would never put stock in a single FStoppers product ever again, or take them seriously as a business. I don't like people being petulant with me when I've just parted with $300.

So you see, I have every right to speak this way, because I'm a paying customer of Patrick's products.

Reporting tends to be done for news. This is not a news website. If you just want straight news and nothing more, you are in the wrong place. If you don't like the articles the man writes, you are in the wrong place.

Yet still, you stay here. Telling these people how they need to run their site that they made.

Go make your own site that reports nothing but the facts of stories in the world of your hobby, if this is a huge issue for you that no other site is taking care of.

Thanks for looking. I actually only just put the blog back up last month after taking it down for a year, but before that, it was very active and had a lot of replies. I had about a million hits to it in the final year, it was pretty popular.

I'm not a blogger though, I'm a photographer, and I'm lucky enough to earn a living from my work, which means I don't really have real time to dedicate to something I use merely for SEO.

Except Patrick's got fantastic opinions for the most part and your opinion isn't worth shit. You're clearly the twat here. Go start your own website that no one will care about where you can post your opinionless articles.

I have my own website, and it contains a blog, it's filled with conjecture, bias, opinion, and I dare say, stupidity. But that's not really the solution. I don't like my country's government, but I'm not going to start my own, am I? If I go to a restaurant and have a meal that doesn't go down too well, I don't, in retaliation, construct a business plan, approach the bank for a large loan, learn the complete art of French cooking from scratch, build a restaurant, staff it, win a Michelin award, and then fax that award to the original restaurant just to show them who's boss, do I?

Do you know why I don't do that, Kev? Because it would be stupid. The only thing more stupid than that is the original inference that if one doesn't like something, that rather than complain or be vocal about it, they should keep their mouth shut and then go off and copy it and do it better.

no, you're right john, if you dont like the site you can take it off your bookmarks and stop visiting it everyday (it's incredibly easy to track your visits on our end). Actually, if you hate it so much, just dont ever visit at all. Super easy.

No, I love the site. I think it's one of the best resources on the internet for photographers. I just don't like you or Patrick. The rest of the writers on this site, especially Lee, are fantastic and provide amazing content. I am a purchaser of the DVD, and a huge fan of Peter's as well.

Again, I just don't like Patrick or you. I find both of you to be sarcastic, petulant, immature egomaniacs who haven't got the first clue about the basic concepts of writing for a site like this.

Please don't make it about FStoppers, it's about you.

Yes, I visit this site several times a day for new content. That's why I have the right to give my opinions and speak the way I do. Not only am I a loyal patron, but I'm also a paying one.

I just think the site would be a lot better if you weren't part of it and Patrick kept his opinions out of it. He'd be fine if he didn't give his opinion in his articles, because it makes them unpleasant to read. Much like this one, where it's so far right, that not even a single person has posted in agreement with him on it. It ruins the articles.

You, though, are by first the worst excuse for a writer and journalist I've ever had the misfortunate to encounter in my life.